Athina: From the Beginning
by KungFuCrazed
Summary: This is the story of my first O.C., Athina. This story tells how she became a great Kung Fu Master with amazing powers and a strong bond with her family and friends. Some parts may not be as lighthearted as the summery may portray, for she must face many hardships and bad people on her journey. Rated K plus. Please enjoy!
1. Surprise

**AN: Hello everyone! This is my OC's story, but it is going to have almost all of my OCs in it. If you read my other stories, then I know that you're probably wondering why I've started a new story, but I haven't been able to update my other ones. The truth is, I've kinda hit a wall in my writing. I can't figure out what to write next. I thought that maybe a new story would help me get back into the writing mood. We'll see. Anyway, as always, please enjoy the story.**

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I stood, looking out the window. He should be home by now. Dinner would be ready in a minute, and he was never late for dinner. He had explained to me many times why dinner was an important time for the family to get together. He must have learned that from Grandma. I barely remember her now. She still lives in Africa, but she tries to write to us at least once a month. Mother writes back whenever we find a good messenger that'll take it that far. We are currently in China. We are going to try to stay here, in the Valley of Peace. It all depends on if Father can get a job or not. I hope he can. I like it here.

I was born a cheetah in the country of Greece. My fur is a light golden color like my dad's, and I have jet-black spots that are outlined in gray, but two of my spots overlap directly in between my eyes. I have sky blue eyes like my mother. Today I'm wearing a dark blue vest with a black trim and plain black training pants. Blue is my favorite color.

My parents named me Athina. It was supposed to be after the Greek Goddess, but either my parents couldn't spell, or they didn't want to offend the Greeks by using their Goddess' name. I'm pretty sure it was the former. I lived in Greece for three years before my parents decided to continue traveling.

We moved to America after that. We took someone with us to America, though. On the way to get on the boat, we saw a White Tiger family on the side of the road. They had lost their home and were trying to buy tickets for the boat with the rest of their money. The person in the ticket booth turned them down. They didn't have enough. Then I noticed two cubs that looked about my age, twins probably. One was a boy and the other was a girl. They were sitting on the ground at their parents' feet. They looked like they hadn't eaten properly in quite a while and their clothes were tattered, filthy, and torn.

I then made the best decision in my entire life. I grabbed my father's paw and pointed toward the family. My father glanced over at them, smiled at me, and pretty soon I had two new friends that were traveling with us. The cubs were named Maxwell and Lillian. They were only one day younger than me! The only major difference between the twins was that Max's stripes curved downwards slightly, while Lilly's curved upwards. Their eyes are different colors too. Max's eyes are a golden yellow, and Lilly's eyes are a jade green.

My father paid for their tickets and we traveled to America together, and that is where my little brother, Andrew, or Andy, was born. Andy looks exactly like my parents. He has golden honey colored fur like my mother, and his spots are a light block, almost gray color like my dad's. He gets his hazel eye color from my father as well.

I was ten by the time my parents decided he was old enough to travel, and we moved once more to China. Now we're renting a small room above a noodle shop in the Valley of Peace. The shop owner is a goose named Mr. Ping. He is also the father of the Dragon Warrior! Maybe we'll get to meet him one day! We help out in the shop during the day and get food and a place to stay in return. Auntie and Uncle Curtis, that's what I call the adult White Tigers, recently came down with a pretty bad sickness though. That's why Father is out. He is looking for a good paying job so he'll be able to pay for the medicine to cure them. I sighed. What was taking him so long?

"Athina, could you come help Mr. Ping for a minute while I go try to find your father?"

"Coming," I answered as I ran down the stairs to meet my mother. Max, Lilly, and Andy were waiting for me.

"I'll be back soon," my mother told me as she turned and left the shop. I groaned as something behind me fell and caused a loud crash. _No matter how soon you get back, it won't be soon enough_, I thought as I turned and began to pick up the pots and pans and rearrange them on the shelf that they fell from. Max came over to help while Lilly helped Andy reach the pot that he had been trying to get for Mr. Ping. I blushed when my paw touched Max's as we were picking up the last pot. I was pretty sure I saw a slight blush under his bright white fur too.

No, I was probably mistaken. I've had a huge crush on him since the first time I saw him, but why would he like me? There are plenty of other girls that are a whole lot prettier than me. I'm a tomboy and I want to be the best Kung-Fu Master the world has ever known, just like The Dragon Warrior and The Furious Five. Who ever heard of a great Kung-Fu Master that had time for a boyfriend or girlfriend? I'd already had a run-in with the valley's bullies though. They'd reminded me of how slim the chances were of me getting a boyfriend. Enough about my love life though.

Mr. Ping kept us busy for the rest of the shop hours. We ran around delivering orders to people and taking orders from people who were just coming in. By the time all of the customers had left, the shop was swept, the tables were wiped, and the dishes were clean, we were exhausted. We sat down at one of the larger tables as Mr. Ping brought some dinner over to us. My parents walked in just in time to join us.

"Did you have any luck with my suggestion?" Mr. Ping asked my father as he sat down at the table. "Did they let you have a job?" My father smiled at the goose.

"They thought it was a great idea! I'm going back tomorrow to see if they'll accept me. They just wanted to put me through some tests and start me on a regular training schedule. They offered Anna a job too." Anna is my mother's name by the way. Jian is my father's.

"Oh that's wonderful! I just know you'll both get accepted! Just think about it, guards of the Jade Palace! You'll be able to pay for the medicine in no time!"

"I don't know, Mr. Ping. We would get paid 20 yuan a day each. That's only 40 yuan daily. It will take a while to be able to pay for the medicine. They won't ship it from Japan until we are able to pay them 10,000 yuan. Then we have to pay an 80 yuan shipping fee," my mother told him.

"We could help." All eyes turned to Lilly. "We would earn the money more than twice as fast if Max, Athina, and I all helped." What? She wasn't going to give away our secret was she? She looked at Max and me. Yup, she was going to give away our secret.

"There is no way I'm going to let you risk your lives. I've only just started to teach you self-defense. You couldn't handle-," my father started

"There's something you need to know about us," Max interrupted, "We can handle ourselves much better than you know. We don't just know self-defense, and we've been doing some training of our own."

"We're elementals."

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**AN: Alright! I'm gonna end it here. I already have my ideas as to how the next chapter will start, so hopefully it won't be too long before I'm ready to post the next one. Please review and tell me what you thought!**


	2. Plan

**AN: Hello, everybody. I was able to write another chapter for y'all. I apologize for taking a long time. I've been using every spare minute in the last week to write this chapter. I have six midterm exams next week, so I'm not sure when I'll post chapter three. I have gotten about halfway through that chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and thank you for your patience.**

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Looks ranging from surprise to suspicion are on everyone's faces. My father's face is soon unreadable. This happens whenever he's thinking really hard about something. I just keep eating. The food tastes a lot better hot in my opinion. Nobody says anything as I get up and place my bowl in the wash tub in the kitchen. Then I take one last look at everybody and walk upstairs.

I lie down on the bed in my half of my room. The upstairs is actually a lot bigger than you'd think. There are enough rooms for all of us as long as everyone has a roommate. Lilly sleeps in the other half of my room. Andy shares with Max. I don't intend to wait here long. I'm simply waiting to make sure nobody followed me.

After about fifteen minutes, I get up and walk over to my window. I need to think. I had done this many times, but my parents were usually mad at me at the time. I open the window and climb onto the branch just below it. Then I reach up and slowly close the window behind me, being careful to leave a small crack so I could get back in later. Then I disappear into the woods.

I walk along the small path that I had created for myself. I found myself having to clear more branches as I grew taller, but I had done so recently, so it would be a more peaceful walk today. I found my thinking tree on the edge of the bamboo forest surrounding the Jade Palace. There is a perfect view of the palace grounds and all of the surrounding buildings. I liked to watch the warriors go about their daily lives. I want to be just like them one day.

I think back to my parents' reactions in Mr. Ping's. I always thought that they would either be extremely mad or happy for us. Instead, they didn't even have an expression on their faces. They didn't say anything. Why didn't they? Were they really that disappointed? Was I wrong to just tell them like that?

I pondered these thoughts for the rest of the evening. By the time I realize it's dark, the moon is high overhead. It's midnight already?! This is just great. Now they're going to be mad at me for staying out too late.

I climb down from my tree and stretch my legs. I'm in no hurry to get yelled at, so I start off at a slow walk back to the noodle shop. That clears my mind. I see the shop up ahead and quickly climb the tree to my window. It has been closed. I try to open it anyway. I'm ready to do anything to avoid my parents for a while. I might not break the window, though. Lilly would be mad.

I sigh softly as the window refuses to open. Someone must have latched it from the inside. I'm contemplating sleeping in the tree when a noise catches my attention. Panicked shouting comes from a room close to mine. The sound of people running through the halls soon follows.

I jump down from the tree and run around to the front of the shop. I try the door and find it unlocked. I run up the stairs and follow the sound of voices. They're coming from Max's parents' room. I open the door seeing the doctor at work as Max and Lilly looked on worriedly. My father is trying to calm them down while my mother is holding Andy and trying to persuade him to go back to bed.

The doctor's apprentice started making people leave as I opened the door. He shoves all of us out the door and I look up at my parents, expecting an explanation. Instead they say nothing. My mother puts Andy back in bed and asks Max to make sure he goes to sleep. No doubt that she was trying to distract him. My father leads me and Lilly back to our room.

His paw on my shoulder stops me as I was following Lilly into our room. He watches Lilly go inside before he kneels beside me. I look up at him, bracing myself for the trouble I was in.

"We'll see what Grandmaster Shifu says."

I stare at him with a look of surprise. He just smiles and hugs me. Something told me that he wasn't trying to comfort me. I saw the tears in his eyes and he stood and walked toward his room. I sigh, walking into my room and sitting on my bed. I can only hope that it isn't too late to find that medicine.

No. I can't just let something bad happen to their parents. There has to be something I can do. I look over at Lilly. She's sleeping? Today must have been a long day for her. Sneaking out will be easy. My parents won't notice. I have to find a way to get that medicine. I don't have time to waste. I'll need to find out what's in it. Maybe I can make it. Or I'll just go get it myself. That would cut out the extra shipping cost.

I jump up from my bed. That's it! I can take the money that they already have saved and go get it myself. I change into all black clothing and reach under my bed and grab a bag. I then run to the door and open it, closing it silently behind me. I go straight to the closet and place the pouches of yuan in my bag. Then I head to the storage cellar.

I fill a bottle of water and then stuff the rest of my bag with the bean buns from the stock. They are about to go bad anyway. I close the bag and sling it over my shoulder as I head back to my room. I write a quick note for Lilly. She'll be the first one to notice my absence. I place it on my bed and walk over to the window.

Unlatching it, I take one quick look around before I'm out the window and sliding down the tree. I silently made my way to the docks. I guess there's only one place to go. Japan.

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**AN: I hope you all liked it! Please leave a review to tell me what you thought. I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as I can.**


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